P.S.: Don’t Forget to Include This in Your Copy

poscriptstamp P.S.: Dont Forget to Include This in Your CopyOne of the most venerable and common elements of a good salesletter, after the headline, is the postscript or “P.S.”

The end of every great sales letter should be capped with a strong P.S. We are often told that the P.S. is the second most read part of a salesletter. Why? Because after reading the headline, many people tend to skim and scroll right down to the bottom.

It’s like the “second headline,” so to speak, of a good salesletter.

This is particularly true when we know that most people tend to read the headline or the “Dear Friend” salutation, then turn to the closing of the letter to see who signed it or who is it from. Partly out of curiosity. Partly to justify reading it in the first place.

So a postscript is not really a place to introduce new pieces of information that are not supported or discussed in the letter — unless it is meant to arouse curiosity, forcing the reader back into the letter.

It is a perfect tool, however, to get the reader to take action.

Including a P.S. in your copy may not always be necessary. I’ve seen some great salesletters that did not have any postscripts at all. But the inclusion of a good P.S. is not as important as the way it’s being used.

As the last opportunity to convert your reader into a buyer, the final statement is one that supports the copy that came before and reinforces a key underlying principle of the letter.

While it can be a great place for a few surprises or new twists in order to clinch the deal, it is most commonly utilized as a brief reinterpretation of what came before.

This follows along with the three major steps in delivering presentations. And what is a sales letter at its core but a written presentation?

As a brief refresher, the three major steps are:

  1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
  2. Tell them.
  3. Tell them what you told them.

Your P.S. can be part of that important final step where you tell them what you’ve told them.

Specifically, you’ve already told them everything in your sales letter, now it’s time to choose the aspect that you believe is most likely to be holding them back from buying after reading all the way through.

A strong P.S. does not beg, but rather invites the reader to take the final step before purchasing. It’s a strong and clear statement that contains the final call to action.

One way to utilize the P.S. is to recap the entirety of your offer. Tell them again what your offer includes, add up the dollar value of your bonuses and outline the extras to reinforce the value of the offer.

Another common technique to employ is to restate something you’ve expressed in the headline. You won’t necessarily copy the headline verbatim, but present the same information in a benefit-driven manner.

For example, your headline says:

The Accidental Weight-Loss Discovery of a Juggling Career Mom Who Lost Six Inches of Baby Fat Around Her Waistline Without Any Exercise of Diets — In Just a Few Weeks!”

The postscript can then say:

P.S.: If you’re a career mom or about to become one, and you’re concerned about unwanted, stubborn baby fat, then this product is perfect for you. Imagine turning heads as you melt away those few extra inches amazingly fast (often, in just a few short weeks!) while avoiding exercises or diets you don’t have time for anyway.”

Also, utilizing an “oh, by the way” approach is an effective one for this type of P.S. This is perhaps the most common use of a P.S., since a postscript is indeed intended to be an afterthought or an important piece of information one has forgotten to mention after the letter was written.

In fact, that’s the original purpose of a P.S. In the old days of writing letters by hand or typewriter, where we did not have the luxury of real-time editing or using correction fluid as we do today, adding a P.S. was common practice.

Today, however, P.S.’s are perfect places not only to add an afterthought or key pieces of information we failed to include in our letter, but also to highlight a specific piece of information we want our reader to absorb and appreciate.

In the same way, use a postscript to restate the primary benefit of your product or service, or better yet introduce a completely new surprise benefit — such as one or more special bonuses that you are including with your offer.

A way to strengthen the offer and “sweeten the deal” at the last minute.

However, one of the most often used techniques with postscripts is to provide a powerful sense of urgency (either by creating scarcity not mentioned in the letter, or by restating it or emphasizing it if one was already mentioned).

This way, the P.S. prompts your prospect to take immediate action — whether it’s buying your offer now, or at least go back and read the letter before it’s too late.

Nevertheless, a postscript is a perfect opportunity to increase buyer confidence and lower resistance.

At this point, you want to acknowledge and alleviate reader skepticism. Expressing that you understand their hesitancy (especially once they’ve read to that point but have yet to take action, which is a great indicator) can be a bridge to overcoming their final objection.

A restatement of the guarantee or highlighting testimonials may be your chosen tactic in this case.

Personally, this is my favorite. I love using P.S.’s to enhance the credibility of my offer in some way, perhaps by including an additional testimonial or endorsement, or by adding or restating the guarantee. Perhaps a newer and even stronger guarantee.

What you are looking to do with your P.S. is identify the one objection you foresee as being the key to holding your reader back from ordering. If you decide on using a testimonial, then choose the one that inherently answers this lingering objection.

To handle this objection further, a postscript may be the place you repeat an important or unique aspect of your offer. Since this is what sets your product or service apart from everything else in the market, it may be important to point it out to your reader again.

However, in doing so it’s best to paraphrase as to make it easier for the reader to understand and truly appreciate its meaning, and make it appear less repetitive.

In other words, reword the original information that was previously introduced as to specifically deal with the objection. Ideally it will be the last piece of the puzzle that your reader needs to make the decision to buy.

By the way, another point I have found is that including more than one postscript (e.g., “P.P.S.” and “P.P.P.S.”), and using them with a variety of different techniques discussed in this article, can prove to be quite effective.

If so, what I have found is that you should stick to three P.S.’s. Why? Because in a triad people tend to read the second one more than they do the first or last P.S.

In other words, if you decide to use more than one P.S., use three and include your biggest benefit, a major key point or the one element on which you want your readers to focus in the second or middle P.S.

As with all aspects of the sales letter that come before, you will have to experiment with your P.S. until it is just right. It can take a while to adjust the angle and the wording until it reaches the peak of effectiveness.

Though shorter and less intense than most other aspects of your sales letter, no less care should be taken with the crafting of this aspect. Considering its position and purpose, it’s a feature you’ll want to address with due deference.

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  • Thanks Mike! Actually most of this is stuff I've heard ( I'm diving head deep into learning copy) but one thing that stuck out to me is what you said about using multiple PS. Specifically if you use more than one, make it 3 and make the middle one the hardest hitter...great stuff man! Thanks
  • Great to hear about the second of 3 PS's. I never could figure which the reader would pay the most attention too. Personally, I read the last (then again, I'm a bit off).
  • @Richard McLaughin - I don't think you're off. The last one, once you scroll right down, is indeed one everyone reads. But it's the 2nd one (the middle one) people remember and act upon the most.

    For example, we did tests where we included three tracking links -- one in each P.S. And the winner was the 2nd one. Whether they've read the 3rd or last one more, they seem to act on the 2nd one the most in split-tests.

    Funny, huh?
  • Mike,

    As I read your post, I recalled watching you a DVD of Yanik Silver's copywriting course: you said that either 1 or 3 P.S.'s was preferred. I think that you quoted Dan Kennedy when saying this.

    I was anticipating mentioning about the 3 PS's in this comment, but saw that you already covered that. What I didn't know was what you said about the second, or middle PS: that people read that more then the other 2.

    Thinking of what adding a PS? Allow me to offer something you should consider...

    It requires a bit of html knowledge, but I think it's worth it, and I'm actually doing it right now in my self-promotion letter.

    Basically, you have a link in your PS...BUT...you link is not an order link. It doesn't take them to the order page.

    In fact, it doesn't take them to any other page.

    But it's still a valid link.

    You know where it takes them?

    If you're aware of html, here's a clue: It has to do with the name attribute.

    Don't worry, I'll explain it all.

    This link takes them to a specific section of your sales page.

    That is, whereas most links take you to the TOP of a web page, where you scroll down, an name attribute takes you to a specific section.

    The section you pick is up to you. It can be 2/3rds of the way down your page, it can be where you state your offer, or, in my case, it'll be where my response form is. (There's no order page on my letter that's a separate page from the salespage. The response form functions the same as an order form would, and is part of my self-promotional letter.)

    This is great because instead of having to state every nitty gritty detail about something significant in your P.S. (which would defeat the purpose of a P.S.), your P.S. can effectively say, "Want to see exactly what's included with this offer? Click here to be taken to the list of everything that's included."

    If you keep in mind that you have to write your salesletters for two types of readers--the skimmers and the word-for-word readers, this will really help direct the skimmers to your most important part of your salesletter.

    Something to think about.
  • Oh...darnit!

    I said I'd explain it all to you, and I didn't tell you how to do it, so let me do that.

    It's quite simple.

    Let's say that the most important part of your salesletter is 2/3rd down the page. It doesn't matter where it is; what really matters is that you know what it is.

    Okay, so it's 2/3rds down the page, and in this case, it's the section where you display your certificate that qualifies you to be offering this product or service.

    What you do, in terms of html, is look in the html code, and find where your certificate starts. If it's an image, then locate the code, or line, for the image.

    Then, you place this line

    Text to be displayed

    above that line.

    So now, that line designates that your certificate is the specific part of that page you want people to see.

    The link you'd place in your PS would be in the format of


    Click here to see my certificate


    When they click on that link, they'll be taken right to your certificate (not the top of your letter).

    Hope this helps.
  • Great piece Michel.

    It caused me to go back and rework the PS statements on my last copy. Added a #3, and strengthen #2.

    John
  • @DK Fynn | Direct-Response Copywriter - Precisely, DK. It was a trick I learned from Dan Kennedy's famous "clicks on the dial" from his copywriting seminar. I went back to my biz and tested, which proved what he was saying.

    It's not necessarily so all the time. We've had higher clickthroughs on the first and the 3rd P.S. But the 2nd one was the highest overall.
  • @DK Fynn | Direct-Response Copywriter - DK, that is one extremely nifty trick. Thanks for bringing it up!
  • Great tips Michel.

    For many years I've used the last P.S. for extra testimonials that don't fit in the copy.

    In some cases I might have 20 or 30 testimonials at the end of the copy.

    The advantage of doing it this way is when your client gets a new testimonial you can just add it in without screwing up the flow of the copy.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh
  • DK Fynn,

    That's a great tip. What you're essentially doing is an anchor tag right?

    I'm gonna have to try that on my next letter :)

    Also, one thing I'd like to add about the P.S. that I've learned is (in offline) not to put the price in there b/c often times people look at that after they read the headline. If they see the price, you haven't created the value yet and they'll think it's too much money and just click off w/o reading the offer.

    That's mostly for offline though - I don't think it's as big of a deal online.

    Jeremy Reeves
    www.controlbeatingcopy.com
  • @Michel Fortin - Well it might be funny, but your testing is interesting. I am going to have to try and see if I actually do the same myself. This will be hard, since I now know the answer :-)

    I appreciate the answer.
  • You have explained the idea so succintly - kudos!

    P.S. We should restate the offer and the guarantee in a lucid language.

    P.P.S. Remind the blog readers to buy Michel's service or at least treat him to a good coffee.

    P.P.P.S. Remind the blog readers to subscribe to the feed so that they can be alerted to new posts.
  • Michel,

    These are some great tips for improving sales letters. I have been in internet marketing just over a year and I still wrestle with sales letters even though I keep a swipe file.

    I'll have to make sure to include the P.S. in my next sales letter.

    Thank you,

    Jeff
  • Michel,

    This was an excellent article. I wonder if the same priciples apply to P.S statements in email copy.

    Any thoughts on that?
  • @Stu McLaren - I imagine the same principles apply, yes. But be careful... people scroll down to the end of an email and what they get is not necessarily the P.S. It's the unsubscribe link. So I think you can use a P.S. in the copy using the principles above, but not to get the reader back into the email. This is a guess, but I'm pretty confident I'm right.
  • Michel, I like the little idea you threw in there. A lot of what you are saying is what we have been told by you in your eBooks and so many others about closing the sale and call to action and reminding of key points. But you also suggested the P.S. as a possible way to arouse curiosity for all those people who skip the sales letter.

    "I the letter above, I mentioned three critical steps without which the entire process is doomed..."

    I'll need to sleep on that one. :-)
  • Hi Michel,

    Great post and I agree wholeheartedly. I have used this for both personal and business writing and it works wonders. With all the emails and letters we get for advertising in the mail many of us have turned into "skimmers". The PS is truly a great tool because it really is a second headline opportunity.

    Jeremy
  • Hi Michael,

    Thanks for sharing this post, I've always known about the importance of P.S. but have not been told about how to use P.S. properly. Your post has helped me to understand and better use the postscript in my emails and copy.

    Asher
  • Yes it can be used in an e-mail copy. In fact, any sentence placed alone at the end of the body will get clicks. Make sure your unsubscribe link is in the footer, and make sure the footer won't look as if it's part of the body.
  • Michael, have you tested this on the web?

    My feeling is that while the p.s. makes sense on paper, I don't know if the dynamics are the same on a scrolling web page.

    Personally, they do nothing for me, at least not on web based sales letters.

    But if you tell me they work just as well on the web, I'll take your word for it.
  • @Brian Killian - Read some of my comments in this comment thread, where I share some of my test results. The answer, in short, is "yes."
  • @Jeremy Reeves - Yes, it's essentially an anchor tag with matching name attributes in the appropriate places.
  • Thanks for really useful article. I will try to use this methods in my next newsletter.
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